-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Android continues to dominate in the battle to be the top smartphone system in the world , thanks in part to Samsung , which reigned as the top phone manufacturer for 2012 .

Android grew its already significant chunk of the smartphone market to 68.8 % last year , while Apple 's iOS operating system stayed comfortably in second place with 18.8 % of smartphone shipments , according to new stats from research firm IDC . Together , the two operating systems accounted for 87.6 % of all new smartphones in 2012 , leaving struggling competitors BlackBerry and Windows far behind .

It 's no surprise that Android has surged so far ahead of iOS . There are are thousands of Android handset models in every size and at every price imaginable , while Apple has released only six versions of the iPhone . Apple sold 130 million smartphones last year , according to Gartner .

`` Even with the Apple Maps debacle , iPhone owners were not deterred from purchasing new iPhones , '' said IDC research manager Ramon Llamas in a statement .

Apple released one new iOS phone in 2012 , the much-anticipated iPhone 5 . However , according to Gartner it was previous iPhone models , which dropped in price enough to make them a more appealing option in emerging markets , that accounted for much of Apple 's smartphone success . Even though Apple 's sales are growing , IDC points out that its year-over-year growth is actually slower when compared with the rest of the smartphone market .

Samsung sold 384.6 million phones in 2012 , only 53.5 % of which were smartphones , according to Gartner . Chinese phone maker Huawei climbed to the No. 3 smartphone vendor spot in the final quarter of 2012 . Nokia has been struggling and 2013 will be a key year for the company . Its fate is largely tied to that of Windows Phone 8 , which runs on Nokia 's latest Lumia phones .

Both BlackBerry and Windows are compteting to win over smartphone customers with their new offerings . BlackBerry just released its long-awaited new smartphone operating system and two new handsets in January , and Microsoft debuted its Windows Phone 8 update at the end of 2012 . BlackBerry must persuade its existing users to make the upgrade and win back some large companies , which were previously its biggest customers .

Unlike BlackBerry , Windows Phone 8 unveiled its new products and marketing campaign early enough to make some progress last year . Though it only made up 2.6 % of the smartphone market in 2012 , it did grow its number of shipments an impressive 98.9 % , according to IDC . BlackBerry plummeted 36.4 % from the previous year , but we 'll have to wait and see how its latest products do in the fresh year .

Overall , the number of phone sales in 2012 actually dropped 1.7 % from the previous year , the first drop since 2009 .

`` Tough economic conditions , shifting consumer preferences and intense market competition weakened the worldwide mobile phone market this year , '' Gartner analyst Anshul Gupta said in a statement .

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Reports : Android , Apple make up vast majority of global smartphone sales

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Samsung was the top phone maker in 2012 thanks to its popular Galaxy devices

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New BlackBerry and Windows Phone 8 devices are just now winning over new users